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Soldier's return makes mom's day

Pedro Menendez graduate marries fiancee while home

Lorri Squire, left, looks through a photo album with her fiance and Army helicopter crew chief, Michael Winner, his mother Jeanie Winner and her mother Donna Squire in the Winners' home in St. Augustine Shores on Wednesday. Lorri Squire and Michael Winner are getting married on Mother's Day at the Florida National Guard Armory on State Road 207. By JUSTINE GRIFFIN, justine.griffin@staugustine.com

Jeanie Winner couldn't imagine a more perfect way to spend her Mother's Day weekend this year.

On Saturday she sat inside a church in St. Augustine and watched her 20-year-old son, dressed in Army blues, marry the girl of his dreams.

Just weeks ago, her son was wrapping up a year-long deployment in Iraq.

"I can actually sleep again now that he's home," Jeanie Winner said in the living room of her St. Augustine Shores home on Wednesday. "This is the best Mother's Day gift I could have ever asked for."

For the past week, Jeanie Winner was busy making sure her son's homecoming from Iraq would be absolutely perfect. Along with her son's fiancée, Lorri Squire, she planned an entire wedding and even found the time to print and assemble a giant red, white and blue sign in the front yard of her home on Solo Court that read: "Welcome home Mike Winner. We are so proud of you!"

Michael Winner returned to the states on March 1 after spending about a year in Kuwait and Iraq. He left his base just outside Manhattan, Kan., for St. Augustine on April 30 to get married in his hometown. Winner, a 2009 Pedro Menendez High School graduate, works as a helicopter crew chief, where he prepares military choppers for day-to-day duty and makes repairs when needed.

In the last year Winner said he got used to the "terrible sandstorms" and intense heat in Iraq, but it was the little things he missed.

"The food is terrible; I've missed McDonald's," he said with a smile.

But most of all, he said his deployment taught him to appreciate everything he has at home.

"You only see the same guys every day over there," Winner said. "It really makes you realize what you've got."

His deployment took a toll on those closest to him though, like his 22-year-old fiancée who waited for him back in St. Augustine.

"You have lots of long days and lots of tears," Squire said. "It's hard not knowing where he is or what he's doing sometimes. But thank God for Skype."

Squire, a 2007 St. Augustine High School graduate, met Winner while they were both working at Kingfish Grill in St. Augustine almost six years ago. Winner proposed in September.

"The distance is hard, but seeing him for the first time after all that, the feeling of him holding me and the smell of his skin is all that matters," Squire said. "It's been a long time coming, but I'm ready to start our own family."

Their relationship grew over the years and last month the couple bought their first home in Kansas. Squire plans to make the permanent move right after the wedding. She'll also start nursing school in Kansas.

"I'm just happy to have another girl in the family," Jeanie Winner said. "It's always just been Michael and I."

As for her Mother's Day celebration, Jeanie Winner said she doesn't even expect to get flowers.